cancer

“A hospital chaplain says that the dying have a lot to teach us on how to live our lives better while we still can. One of the most frequent yet surprising regrets she’s found, especially from female patients, is the fact that they hated their bodies for so many years. Only now, when that body is truly failing, do they realize they should have celebrated it.”

A couple of weeks ago, while recovering from surgery to remove a tumor on my thyroid, I spent the night and day on the South Saskatchewan river. I’d been told that I should avoid the sun to lessen the severity of my scar, but I knew that there was nothing that could be more healing for me than the sun on my body, sand in my hair and the river under me.

Kasia sent us a copy of her film several months ago and we were touched. She is a doctor who became a patient when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

Her documentary focuses on her battle to redefine her life and survive. Filmed over nine years, Outside In draws from 170 hours of footage, film clips, home movies, still photos, artwork, and clippings, enhanced by artistic elements and a highly evocative music score. Through frank discussions with her medical doctors, psychiatrist, physicist father, artist mother, schizophrenic sister, and close friends,